Strange Mountain II: Please Wait For Me, Please Wait Forever
Polar Seas Recordings

On the sleeve of this latest release from Toronto-based Polar Seas Recordings, two details immediately catch the eye: the shinto-like structure photo on the cover and the “written and recorded by Marcel Thee at home, Jakarta, Indonesia” text on the backside. While too much shouldn't necessarily be made about the latter when electronic music producers are now more than ever located throughout the world, one hears this Strange Mountain II recording in a slightly different manner knowing that its material originated out of Indonesia. That dimension resonates especially when field recordings work their way into the presentation; when trudging footsteps appear within “As the Sun Parts, We Remain,” one visualizes Thee trudging through the Southeast Asian nation's grassy fields, whereas the presence of crashing waves in “For An Ocean Awakened” lead one to imagine he sourced the sounds directly from one of Indonesia's surrounding seas.

Musical elements blend with real-world sounds on the recording, all of it heavily processed and melded into evocative, often episodic form. In some of the eight pieces, field recording details dominate while in others they're downplayed. In the longer settings especially, the material advances through multiple sequences, Thee being careful to ensure all such transitions occur fluidly: “As the Sun Parts, We Remain” opens with ambient swirls of twinkling pianos wrapped in gauze before mutating into a robust ambient-drone soundscape teeming with distressed textures, while “Careful Not to Fall” follows an intro of grinding industrial-ambient with a comparatively less unsettling back half of soothing washes and organ drones.

March 2019